The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers part 18 potx

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151Chapter 6Color Correction Secrets
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Continued
Step Nine:
Let’s start by setting the shadows first, so
press Command-M (PC: Ctrl-M) to bring
back up the Curves dialog (shown here).
Now, your job is to look at the photo and
find something that’s supposed to be the
color black. In most photos, this won’t be
a problem—you’ll see a dark area of shad-
ows (like the parts of the bicyclist’s jacket
in this photo, or a black car tire, or a black
shirt, etc.), and in those cases, it’s no sweat.
But, if you can’t find something that’s sup-
posed to be the color black, then you can
have Photoshop show you exactly where
the darkest part of the photo is.
TIP: Using Curves from the
Adjustments Panel
If you’re familiar with adjustment lay-
ers, you can apply your Curves as an
adjustment layer, instead, using the
Adjustments panel. Just click on the
icon that looks like the Curves grid, and
instead of getting a floating dialog, you
can adjust your curve from right within
the panel. More on adjustment layers
later on.
Step 10:

There are two sliders directly under the
curve grid that can help you find where
the darkest and brightest parts of your
image are. Start by turning on the Show
Clipping checkbox (shown here), and your
image area turns solid white, then click-
and-hold on the left (shadow) slider. As
you drag the slider to the right, the first
areas that appear onscreen are the darkest
parts of your photo. That’s Photo shop
telling you exactly where to click, so
remember where those areas are (in this
case, I’d prob ably choose the bottom of
the bicyclist’s jacket, because it’s showing
up as solid black, which means all three
color channels are solid black).
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Chapter 6 Color Correction Secrets
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Step 11:
Now that you know where your shadow
area is, drag that shadow slider back to
the left, and turn off the Show Clipping
checkbox. Click on the shadow Eye-
dropper, move out over your photo
(while the Curves dialog is still open),
and click once on that shadow area. In
this case, click in the shadow area at the

bottom of the bicyclist’s jacket (shown
circled here in red), and it converts your
shadow areas to a neutral shadow color,
and the color cast is removed from them
(compare this photo with the one in Step
Nine and you’ll see the difference this one
click makes, in both color and contrast).
TIP: Turning Off
the Channel Overlays
When you click in that shadow area,
three new lines appear in your curve,
showing how the Red, Green, and Blue
channels were affected by your move.
Although some users love seeing these
lines, some folks (like me) find it really
distracting. If you’d like those chan-
nel lines turned off, just click on the
triangle next to Curve Display Options
at the bottom left of the Curves dialog,
then turn off the checkbox for Channel
Overlays (as shown here).
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153Chapter 6Color Correction Secrets
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Continued
Step 12:
Now, on to setting the highlight point.
Your job: find something that’s supposed
to be the color white. Again, this is usu-

ally pretty easy, but if you can’t find some-
thing white, you can use the same trick
you just learned to have Photoshop show
you where the lightest part of your photo
is. Turn on the Show Clipping check box
again, but this time drag the far-right
slider to the left. The screen turns black
(as shown here), and as you drag to the
left, the first white areas that appear are
the lightest parts of your image.
TIP: Skipping the Show
Clipping Checkbox
Pressing-and-holding the Option (PC:
Alt) key and dragging those Input slid-
ers does the same thing as temporarily
turning on the Show Clipping checkbox.
Step 13:
Now that you know where your highlight
area is, drag that highlight slider back
all the way to the right, and turn off the
Show Clipping checkbox. Click on the
highlight Eyedropper, move out over
your photo, and click once on that high-
light area. I try to look for a white area
that has some detail (rather than click-
ing on what’s called a specular highlight,
which is a blown out highlight area with
no detail, like the sun, or a bright sun
reflection on a chrome car bumper, etc.).
In this case, I clicked on the curb to the

right of the bicyclist (as shown here), and
that made the highlight areas neutral and
removed any color cast in the highlights
(we’re only two clicks into this correc-
tion, and look how much better the
photo already looks).
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Chapter 6 Color Correction Secrets
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Step 14:
Now for your third click—finding some-
thing that’s supposed to be a neutral
gray. This one’s a little trickier, because
not every photo has a neutral gray area,
and the Curves dialog doesn’t have
a “find the gray” trick like it does for
shadows and highlights, but never fear—
there’s a project coming up in this chap-
ter that shows you a way to find that
neutral area every time. In the example
we’re working on, finding an area that’s
supposed to be a neutral gray isn’t a
problem—you can click on another part
of the curb (as I did here). It neutralizes
the color cast in the midtones, and
as you can see here, it removed that
blue color cast that was still there after
neutralizing the highlights and shadows.

Now we have a much warmer and more
natural looking tone.
Step 15:
Before you click OK, you’re going to use
Curves to increase the overall contrast
in the photo (in fact, it’s the best way to
increase contrast in Photoshop). Plus, it’s
easy: (1) first, click once right in the very
center of the grid to add a point; (2)
click above and to the right of the cen-
ter, right along the line, where the gray
grid lines intersect with the diagonal line;
and (3) add one more point on the line,
where the lines intersect at the bottom
quarter (they’re shown circled here).
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155Chapter 6Color Correction Secrets
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Step 16:
Now, while the bottom-left point is
selected, press the Down Arrow key on
your keyboard eight or nine times to
move that point of the curve downward,
which increases the contrast in the shad-
ow areas. Then, click on the top-right
point, but now press the Up Arrow key
on your keyboard 10 or 12 times to
increase the contrast in the highlights.
Moving the top point up and the bottom

point down like this steepens the curve
and adds more contrast. Now you can
click OK, and you’re done.
Before
After
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Chapter 6 Color Correction Secrets
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Advantage One:
Undos That Li ve Forever
By default, Photoshop keeps track of the
last 20 things you’ve done in the History
panel (shown here), so if you need to
undo a step, or two, or three, etc., you
can press Command-Option-Z (PC: Ctrl-
Alt-Z) up to 20 times. But, when you close
your document, all those undos go away.
However, when you make an edit using an
adjustment layer (like a Levels or Curves
adjustment), you can save your image as a
layered file (just save it in Photoshop for-
mat), and your adjustment layers are saved
right along with it. You can reopen that
document days, weeks, or even years later,
click on that adjustment layer, and either
undo or change that Curves, Levels, or
other tonal adjustment. It’s like an undo
that lives forever.

Advantage Two:
Built-In Masks
Each adjustment layer comes with a
built-in layer mask, so you can easily
decide which parts of your photo get the
adjustment just by painting. If you want
to keep an area of your photo from
having the adjustment, just get the Brush
tool (B) and paint over it in black. There’s
more on layer masks to come, but they
offer tremendous flexibility, and since
they don’t actually affect the pixels in
your image, they’re always undoable.
Before we really dive into color, we need to spend two minutes with the
Adjust ments panel. Of all the enhancements added in Photoshop CS4, the
Adjustments panel was my favorite, because it streamlined our workflow so
dramat ically that even if you’d never used adjustment layers before, you had
to start working with them. So, from this point in the book on, we’ll use adjust-
ment layers every chance we get, because of all the advantages they bring.
Here’s a quick look at them and how to use them to your advantage:
The Advantages of
Adjustment Layers
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157Chapter 6Color Correction Secrets
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Continued
Advantage Three:
One-Click Presets
Adobe has added a bunch of built-in pre-

sets that you can apply with one click right
from within the Adjustments panel. Plus,
if you come up with a setting you like, you
can save your own custom presets. So, for
example, if you come up with a favorite
Levels setting (using a Levels adjustment
layer), you can save it as a preset (by choos-
ing Save Levels Preset from the panel’s
flyout menu), and then apply it anytime
from the Adjustment panel’s Preset list
with just one click.
Advantage Four:
Blend Modes
When you apply an adjustment layer, you
get to use the layer blend modes. So if you
want a darker version of your adjustment,
you can just change the layer blend mode
of your adjustment layer to Multiply. Want
a brighter version? Change it to Screen.
Want to make a Curves adjustment that
doesn’t affect the skin tone as much?
Change it to Luminosity. Sweet!
Advantage Five:
Everything Stays Live
Back in previous versions of Photoshop,
when you created an adjustment layer
(let’s say a Curves adjustment layer, for
example), it would bring up the floating
Curves dialog (as seen here). While it was
onscreen, the rest of Photoshop was fro-

zen—you couldn’t make changes or do
anything else until you closed the Curves
dialog by either applying your adjust-
ment or hitting Cancel. But thanks to the
Adjustments panel, everything stays live—
you just go to the Adjustments panel and
make your changes there. There is no OK
or Apply button, so you can change any-
thing anytime. This will make more sense
in the next step.
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Chapter 6 Color Correction Secrets
The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers
Step One:
The best way to understand this whole
“live” thing is to try it, so go open any
photo (it really doesn’t matter which
one), then go to the Adjustments panel
and click on the Curves icon (it’s the
third one in the top row). Rather than
bringing up the Curves dialog in front of
your image (and freezing everything else),
the Adjustments panel now displays
the curve, so you can make your adjust-
ments, but everything stays live—you
can adjust your curve, go right down
and change the blend mode of a layer,
or paint a few brush strokes, then grab

another part of the curve and adjust it.
There’s no OK button, and everything
stays live. This is bigger than it sounds
(ask anyone who’s used CS3).
Step Two:
If you’re thinking the curve itself looks
a little small stuck in that narrow panel,
Adobe must have been thinking the
same thing, because there’s a little icon
in the bottom-left corner of the panel
(shown circled here in red), and if you
click on it, it expands the size of the
entire panel so everything’s easier to
work with (as seen here).
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159Chapter 6Color Correction Secrets
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Step Three:
Now let’s delete our Curves adjustment
layer by dragging it onto the Trash icon
at the bottom of the panel. Add a Hue/
Saturation adjustment by clicking on its
icon (it’s the second one in the middle
row). Drag the Saturation slider way over
to the left to remove most of the color,
for the look you see here. Now, the way
adjustment layers work is this: they affect
every layer below them. So if you have five
layers below it, all five layers will have their

color desaturated like this. However, if you
want this adjustment layer to just affect
the one single layer directly below it (and
not the others), then click on the clipping
icon (it’s the third from the left at the
bottom of the panel, shown circled here
in red). This clips the adjustment layer to
the layer directly beneath it.
Step Four:
There are a couple other options: To edit
any adjustment layer you’ve already
created, just click on it once in the Layers
panel and its controls will appear in the
Adjustments panel. To return to the list
of adjustment layers and their presets,
click on the Return to Adjustment List
icon at the bottom of the panel (shown
circled here in red). To hide any adjust-
ment layer you’ve created, click on the
Eye icon (either at the bottom of the
Adjustments panel, or to the left of the
adjustment layer in the Layers panel).
To reset any panel to its default settings,
click the round arrow icon to the immedi-
ate left of the Trash icon. To see a before/
after of just your last change, click the
icon to the left of the Reset icon. The
hardest thing about the Adjustments
panel is figuring out which icon represents
which adjustment, so just move your cur-

sor over an icon, and its name appears in
the upper-left corner of the panel.
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Chapter 6 Color Correction Secrets
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Step One:
Here’s a pretty flat-looking photo that
could use a Curves adjustment to bring
more contrast to the photo and, as I
mentioned above, we’re going to use the
TAT (shown circled in red here), so we
really don’t have to mess with the curve
at all, we just have to tell Photoshop
two simple things: (1) which area of the
photo we want to adjust, and (2) if we
want that area to be darker or brighter.
That’s it—and we do the whole thing
using just our mouse. So, start by pressing
Command-M (PC: Ctrl-M) to open the
Curves dialog and clicking on the TAT.
TIP: Using a Curves
Adjustment Layer
Don’t worry—if you use a Curves adjust-
ment layer (rather than just using the
standard Curves dialog seen here), it has
the TAT, too! (Get it, TAT too? Tattoo?
Aw, come on, that one wasn’t that bad.)
Adjusting Contrast

Using the Targeted
Adjustment Tool
Besides using Curves for color correction, this is also a powerful tool for creating
contrast, because it gives you a range of control you really can’t get any other way.
Of course, in the past, you really had to know Curves inside and out to tweak indi-
vidual areas of your image, but thanks to the Targeted Adjustment Tool (or TAT
for short), you can now click-and-drag right on the image, and the tool will tweak
the right part of the curve for you automatically. It’s way cooler than it sounds.
SCOTT KELBY
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